(Bloomberg) - A new fund is on the way with a mission to deliver twice the return of the famous ARK Innovation ETF -- even as Cathie Wood’s flagship strategy stages an epic meltdown in the U.S. tech wreck.
The AXS 2X Innovation exchange-traded fund (ticker TARK) will target 200% of the performance of the ARK Investment Management’s main fund, according to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
It will be a minimum 75 days before the product from Investment Managers Series Trust can launch. But the timing is audacious: ARKK is down 55% from a peak after tumbling 25% in 2022 alone.
In the rate-spurred selloff this year, investors are dumping the kind of expensive-looking companies with uncertain profit trajectories that are beloved by the ARK co-founder and her team. The bullish case is that the planned ETF will land just in time to pounce on any rebound in favor of speculative shares if the bond selloff eases.
Yet bets against ARKK are only growing, with record short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding at 9.4%, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd. The Tuttle Capital Short Innovation ETF (SARK), which uses swap contracts to short the Innovation ETF, posted a record inflow of $94 million in the latest data -- a sign of growing investor conviction that ARKK will sink anew.
Wood’s superstar status has helped create a thriving ecosystem of trades piggybacking off her fame. As well as SARK and potentially TARK, there are multiple leveraged notes in Europe as well as dozens of structured products -- either betting on or against her vision of the disruptive technologies of tomorrow.
The firm behind TARK applied at the same time to create a product offering the inverse of the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB). The latter has been hammered amid a clampdown by the Chinese government on major industries including tech.
By Sam Potter
